When should you retire?If that question is ringing in your mind, better keep away from friends, advisers, therapists, TV doctor, or real living doctor, who might say, "At your age you should be ... at your age you shouldn't..."
Do not think at my age, I should do this or that. Don't ask "Why am I forgetting things," or "why didn't I hear that?" Those questions lead to appointments with doc, dentist, or eye guy.
The World Science Festival said, "Age 90 Is the new 50.” Pooh! If you're in the nineties, or approaching 90, just think of Betty White, or Warren Buffet.
Be wary of age-brackets, age cliches, rationales, and age as a factor. BANISH THE NUMBERS.
Just ask yourself, "What would I do, IF I retired?"
Read what? travel where? paint - write or tweet or like stuff on Facebook? Volunteer, be a peer for other retirees, poor folks, kids, pets?
Gee, well, I could make a braided rug from scraps of clothes I planned to give away -- if I start today, it could take a year.
Flash to Plainfield, New Jersey -- a 99-year-old woman is teaching cooking and sewing at the Sundance School.
She started at 81. Agnes Helesnik is her name.
Her pupils call her granny. They recently celebrated her 99th birthday. They said, "Granny makes it worthwhile, coming to school."
Granny, sounding very with it, said delightedly, They're just something else."
Be, do, try "something else."
The time to retire is once a day, more or less at bedtime.
Tell your loving pals, "Sometime after 109 or 119, I might think of taking a break."
Here's Granny celebrating her 97th birthday.
Posts
7 comments:
Good article!
Indeed. Retire from ... what? What then? If I publish a novel every year, by the time I hit 99, maybe I'll have actually written something that more than a couple of people will have read. There's a thought.
Great blog Em! Hope I live to be 99 or 100 years old. I retired when I became disabled in 2009. Now I am at home and enjoy each day to the fullest I can. I am on the computer alot and like facebook and talking to my friends. I like being at home in my own little world. Thanks for sharing this interesting Granny! kam
How wonderful!! I love your advice Em: "Be, do, try "something else." Well said and I try to live my life that way. I love to learn and new things keeps us young in mind, body and spirit. Age, schmage. Don't let that 'number' define you!
exactly when one goes to bed they retire
When one goes to bed for the night they retire. When one becomes deceased they also retire as we all will at some point, until then we all keep moving and living. I'm so very happy to hear stories like this Emily. I thank you so much for sharing because my mother spent Valentines day in the hospital with her husband only to lose him within two weeks of the surgery. She is an amazing dancer though not of your caliber but she is also a talented artist from which I'm sure I got some of those genes naturally. She has never taken time to explore her talented side and I'm hoping at the young age of 80 she finally will. Hugs and love as always to you and John xoxo
For some people, there's no such thing as "retirement", they remain active and involved until the day they die (or ill-health prevents them). For others, they just give up and resign themselves to the slow, inexorable decline until death. I hope to be in the former category. As George Bernard Shaw wrote, "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing."
Post a Comment